The Kellogg Institute for International Studies, part of the University of Notre Dame’s new Keough School of Global Affairs, is an interdisciplinary community of scholars that promotes research, provides educational opportunities, and builds linkages related to democracy and human development.

The Democratization Theory research cluster continues the Kellogg Institute's long tradition as a center for innovative thinking in democratization theory. For decades, the concepts and measures used in democratization research have fallen short of being able to adequately capture the diversity, complexity, and dynamism of political regimes. As both older and newer democracies experience democratic retrogression rather than advancement, fresh thinking is needed.

The researchers plan to fundamentally rethink concepts relating to regimes and regime change in order to develop theories of long-term historical progression toward democracy, and regression from it, that pay more attention to neglected dimensions. Some efforts will build on the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) conceptual scheme and data; others will be complementary or completely separate. The cluster expects to give less emphasis to suffrage extension and the fact of elections and more attention to the role of the judiciary and constitutions, legislative strength, election administration, and human rights, among many possibilities.

The democratization theory cluster will:

Examine both historical and contemporary processes of democratization;

Look at the impact of past historical trajectories on current situations;

Focus on experiences of democratic retrogression as well as progression;

Expected products: More than 30 innovative papers; case studies; journal articles; one or more edited volumes

Sub-Clusters

The Democratization Theory research cluster involves seven sub-clusters dedicated to advancing research within specific sub-fields while bridging world regions and historical periods.

Sub-cluster activities include collaboration in the authorship of academic papers and journal articles in addition to the facilitation of work-in-progress sessions and reading groups. For more information on a specific sub-cluster, please contact the respective coordinators listed below.​